St Joseph’s School is the school of choice for families across the Cairns region. Our school community is centred on our values of Learning, Love, Community and Respect, as Jesus showed. We strive to live the St Joseph’s Way each day which builds on the family values established in the homes of our families.

Our families tell us that they choose St Joseph’s for the following reasons:

• we are considerate of the lives of busy parents as shown through streamlined communication and the provision of all learning resources including digital resources for each child
• we are ideally located in the heart of Cairns, close to where many families work and easily accessible for school events and meetings
• we have a strong and intentional focus on teaching children how to be good at learning which improves well-being and academic achievement
• we are the ideal size school of 390 students where children are known by name
• we provide before and after school care and a vacation care program for working families
• we have state of the art facilities with beautifully appointed learning spaces and much shade for learning and play
• we are very affordable with fee concessions when needed
• we target our high levels of resources for our students with teams of teachers and learning assistants who wrap much support around all cohorts and enable learning targeted at the needs of each child
• a Kitchen Garden program aimed to develop learners who value and care for nature

Our school has undergone major redevelopment and provides a world-class, state of the art learning facility for our community. With large, comfortable, cool and attractive spaces to learn, our ‘learning habitats’ provide agency and agility for all learning situations.

To find out more about our great school, explore this website or contact the school where one of our friendly staff can assist you further. If you so desire, book a school discovery tour and meet the principal as he can show you what St Joseph’s has to offer your family.

Principal’s Welcome

I am delighted to welcome you to our St Joseph’s School website. Here you will find important information about what we uniquely offer our families that I hope motivates you to contact our friendly staff for further information, and to book a discovery tour.

In the spirit of reconciliation, I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which St Joseph’s exists and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

I believe that good quality schooling as a part of life-long education enables young learners to be successful in life. Discovering the ‘sweet spot’ where schools and families work together in complementary ways is what I am driven to do so that our children can thrive.   

I am a passionate educator with over 30 years of experience in teaching and leading Catholic schools across the diocese of Cairns. I was called early in my career to leadership in Catholic Education and have successfully guided several school communities. My leadership at St Joseph’s has been a highlight of my career as we transformed our school into what it is today: a high performing school of choice with a reputation of care for each learner and a school that is future thinking and always striving to improve.